


The Country for Farming

by bunn



Series: On the Road North [1]
Category: Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff, Eagle of the Ninth Series - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: Cerne Abbas Giant, Gen, Roman Britain, romans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-31
Updated: 2011-10-31
Packaged: 2017-10-25 03:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunn/pseuds/bunn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mild humour: Marcus and Esca find the Chalk a fertile land...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Country for Farming

It was good to be riding North by Marcus’s side, Esca thought. Away from Calleva, away from straight streets and high walls, and walking three paces behind his lord. A bright day, a good horse to ride, a friend by your side and a task to do: what more could one ask?

At Durinum, Marcus had collected the gear, and just a little of the lore, of a quack-salver of eyes, from Rufrius Galarius. The old surgeon was much taken with Marcus’s quest, which Marcus described to him in vague and intriguing terms, and was more than a little inclined to take the credit for the fact that Marcus’s leg was strong enough to undertake such a journey. The art of the travelling oculist could not be learned in a couple of days, he told Marcus, reprovingly. But there were a couple of simple techniques that could be easily learned, and were unlikely to make any eye problem worse...

And then at last they had set out on their long journey North to the Wall. They rode at first through the high downs around Durinum, along quiet tracks white with chalk. The thin spring sunshine filtered through the brilliant green of new beech leaves, and on either side of the road spread wide seas of bluebells, filling the air with a delicate scent.

“A good rich country, this” Marcus remarked, looking up from the road at a gentle curving hillside where heavy-bodied russet-red cattle with great long horns were grazing.

“It is good grazing land” Esca agreed, and then he laughed abruptly, as their horses rounded a clump of trees and he was able to see the full sweep of the hillside above them “A very fertile land too, it would seem! Now, there is one very happy man!” He waved a hand at the huge chalk figure of a naked man cut high in the hillside above them.

“A fruitful land indeed, this one!” Marcus said, laughing too.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Before they can go North, they have to go to Dorchester to get oculist equipment. Very probably the Cerne Abbas giant is not really old enough for Marcus and Esca to have seen him. But as they would have gone right past where he now is, it seemed too good an opportunity to waste. And anyway, Romans really liked phalluses, so there is no reason there shouldn't have been another one there, even if the one there now IS later. Oh, you want to see the Cerne Abbas Giant? [I thought you might](http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=cerne+abbas+giant&ll=50.813297,-2.4807&spn=0.001302,0.008256&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=giant&hnear=Cerne+Abbas,+Dorchester,+Dorset,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.813297,-2.4807&cbp=11,0,,0,0&photoid=po-18520769).


End file.
